Scouting Mission
by Gmariam
Summary: Rey and Poe are sent on a scouting mission to search out new locations for the Resistance. They're not having much luck, though, between the bad weather, the piles of skeletons, and the nightmarish beasts that live there. It's an opportunity to get to know one another that they don't necessarily need-or maybe they do, as long as they can survive.
1. Chapter 1

I.

"So what exactly are we looking for again?" asks Rey, gazing around the area with interest.

"Didn't you pay any attention at the meeting?" Poe grumbles as he studies the landscape with his quadnocs. They're on a barren moon in the Japrael system, nothing but drab, rocky terrain as far as the eye can see, overhung with grey clouds and a cold wind. He set them down on the edge of a series of large canyons. It could work for a new base—unknown, unpopulated— though his first instinct is not a good one. It feels_ too_ empty, too bleak. But they're getting desperate, and apparently, it had been scouted during the Rebellion as a remote possibility; it does seem better than someplace like Hoth.

"Some," she admits. "I didn't expect to be sent out on a scouting mission, to be honest."

There are no trees anywhere, only scrubby bushes dotting the rocks, and he kicks one away, noticing the long, sharp thorns and making note not to get stuck on one. "Better things to do?" he asks, pleased when it comes out more teasing than bitter, since he's not bitter, not exactly. Then again, she can probably _feel_ his real meaning, what with her training and all.

"Not better," she says calmly. "Just different." He's seen her riled up, been on the wrong end of her stubborn side, and knows she's almost as much of an impulsive hothead as he is, but this calmness…this is new. This is what she's learning from Leia, and as much as Poe hates to admit it, it suits her. He could probably use some himself.

"Right," he drawls. "Different." They continue to study the area, though Rey seems more caught up in the scenery than anything. It's not unlike Jakku, only without all the sand. "Hey, can you do some scans, see what we're looking at here? We need to find a new base quick, you know."

"Right," she says, and pulls a portable scanner from her bag and waves it around. "Sorry. Not used to this."

They take their readings in silence, which is something Poe always prefers to break. "So it's different," he starts, and she glances up.

"What is?"

"What you're doing, with the General."

"Yes," she answers. "Different."

"Different in a good way or different in a bad way?" He can't resist asking, since he still wonders what exactly she's doing, other than mystical Jedi things. He has the utmost respect for Jedi, having met Luke Skywalker many times, but sometimes he wishes they were a bit more down to earth. And helping with the Resistance more.

She rolls her eyes at him, though he still hasn't figured out if it's a friendly eye roll or an annoyed one. He's only known her for a few months, and he feels like he's spent half those in his ship, searching for allies, bases, anything that can help them after the disaster at Crait. What he's gotten to know, he likes, but she's…prickly. She almost reminds him of what he was like as a teenager, if he'd grown up on an isolated desert planet alone in an AT-AT walker. She's quick and smart, a hell of a pilot and mechanic. BB-8 loves her, and Chewbacca, and Finn, and Leia has taken Rey under her wing like a surrogate daughter.

She is also the last Jedi. Sometimes Poe finds himself watching her in awe, thinking of what she's been through and how far she's come. Then he wonders why she's not doing more for them in the field and gets frustrated. But he knows the Force works in mysterious ways, and he sets his irritation aside. Poe can play the long game, because he suspects she will be one of their most important players at the end. Even if she is stubborn, impulsive, and prickly.

"Do you ever miss flying?" he asks, genuinely curious. The planet is unnaturally quiet and Poe hates the silence. "You're too good to be grounded, you know."

He can see the surprise in her face, though he wonders why she's surprised. Like him, she knows she's good and doesn't try to hide it. Maybe she wasn't expecting to hear it from him, but he tries to be generous when it comes to compliments; maybe he needs to try harder with her.

"Thanks," she says. "Yes, I miss it. I think it's one reason Leia wanted me to come."

"I think it's one of many reasons," Poe agrees. They'd been tasked with checking out several star systems in an old two-seater Y-wing. Rey had piloted them to the Vandor system, while Poe brought them to Japrael; Y-wings were definitely not his preferred way to fly, and he half wished they'd taken a pair of X-wings instead. "We may need you in a ship one day, you know."

He can feel her watching him, but continues to scan the area around them. The canyons should be large enough for their small fleet, not to mention giving them some good training opportunities. There are caves below that might make decent barracks; they'll have to take a look to see what they're like. Atmosphere is hospitable, but Poe wonders about the weather: it's already cold on the canyon tops, and he suspects fierce winds and frigid nights. There's a small creek running through the bottom of the canyon that might work as a water source, though Poe imagines rushing floods taking out the camp after a bad rain. They've had worse homes, but it would be nice to find somewhere they didn't have to worry about environmental issues and could concentrate on more important things, like fighting the First Order.

It's the lack of trees, of grass and brush and anything green (or living) that bothers him the most. It feels so exposed. He can't tell if it's always been like this, or if something terrible happened there eons ago. Still, it's somewhat out of the way and clearly unexplored, so maybe it will work. If it wasn't for the bad feeling tickling the back of his mind.

"You think there are other reasons she sent me?" Rey asks. It's as much a statement as a question, and he wonders what she suspects about Leia's unexpected orders to pair up and scout systems together. Both Chewbacca and Finn had seemed surprised as well, though Poe still wonders if there's something else going on there, even if Finn said there wasn't. He shrugs in reply.

"Maybe. Maybe she thought you needed a break from your training."

Rey does not reply, tweaking something on her scanner. "Have you picked up the caves?" she asks. "They look promising."

"Yeah, we should take a look, see if they're stable. Occupied." He walks to the edge of the canyon and looks down. It's a long way down and not too steep, but a tumble won't do either one of them any favors.

"Occupied?" she asks, coming to stand next to him and gazing into the rocky canyon. "I'm not picking up anything."

"Me neither," says Poe. "Doesn't mean there isn't something down there." He grins. "Ready?"  
Without waiting for an answer, he starts picking his way down, slipping and sliding until his pants are ripped and he's breathing heavily. Rey seems equally annoyed, and he wonders if maybe they should have taken the ship down right into the canyon.

"If this were sand, we could just slide all the way," she calls to him.

"If this were sand, Finn would never leave the _Falcon," _he tosses back, and she laughs. Even so many months later, they still tease Finn about Jakku. It takes about twenty minutes of awkward shuffling to make it to the bottom of the canyon, relatively unscathed if exceptionally dirty, and Poe looks around, both pleased and unsettled.

"It seems big enough," Rey says, and she's right. There's more than enough room for what they have now, with space to grow. The problem is that something is…off.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Poe murmurs.

"You feel it too?" she asks, lowering her voice.

"Yeah, there's something not right about this place," he says. There are several caves in the side of the ravine, all of them dark shadows in the stone that could hide anything. The creek is small and dirty. There are still no signs of life. "I don't know what it is, but I don't like it."

"Are you Force-sensitive?" she asks. "Because that's what I feel, the Force, but…not right."

"No, I think it's just that obvious," Poe says. He doesn't mention that he grew up around the Force, hearing the stories, climbing the tree in his yard. He shakes off whatever the bad feeling is—instinct, the Force, a change in the weather—and keeps walking. "Let's check out the caves, to be sure. Might make a decent bolt-hole if anyone ever needs one."

"Bolt-hole?" she asks, following him.

"Place to lay low, say if you're being chased through the system. We've got a few scattered around." He'd probably do everything he could to avoid this one, but any intel they can gather will be useful. "We've still got several hours until darkness, but it shouldn't take that long."

The first cave is dark and empty, as is the second. They are shallow, perhaps made by water flowing through the canyon in better days. Not deep enough for much shelter, though safer than living out in the open. The third one they come to is smaller, more like a doorway, but it leads into a much larger cavern. Scanners show it's dark and empty, so Poe pulls out a small lamp and steps forward to enter. He is both curious and reluctant. Rey grabs his arm, looking alarmed.

"This is it," she says. "The bad feeling."

He shines his light inside, can't see anything but more darkness. "Do you get anything else?" he asks. "Besides the bad feeling?" He feels it too, but he doesn't want to write off this place without having a good reason; bad feelings don't always qualify. He's made too many mistakes lately and is still having trouble trusting his gut. And the first system they'd scouted didn't look promising either.

"It's something to do with the Force," she says, her brows knit together in concentration. "It feels like this place on Ahch-To, a cave. It was…not a good place." Her eyes are distant and pained.

"Are we talking Dark-side bad here?" he asks, because then he'd definitely turn around. Leia would understand that kind of bad feeling. Rey shakes her head.

"I don't think so, but it's unclear. Maybe I'll know more when we go in." She unclips the repaired lightsaber from her belt and steps inside.

"Then I guess we're going in," Poe murmurs, and he follows, feeling far more reluctant and nervous now. What good was a Jedi if all they had were bad feelings and nothing more specific? He could do that on his own.

The cavern is the size of a small building and twice as high, but Poe can't tell whether it is natural or was carved by some alien race. He doesn't see obvious signs of civilization, but it seems odd, this large cave in the middle of nowhere. Their footsteps echo eerily in the dark, boots crunching on something Poe doesn't want to look down and see. He forces himself to check anyway, and finds the entrance littered with bones. Not human, but some sort of large creature, and he shudders from both the cold and the uneasiness growing in his gut. Toward the back of the cavern he notices something that is not natural.

"It looks like a camp of some kind," he says as they move closer. "Someone came here, a long time ago." There are several metal supply cases, the kind an old starship might have used for storage, a lantern that must be decades old, blankets that are practically disintegrated, all laid out in a small half circle. He shines his light around, and not far away he sees it: another pile of bones, this one human.

"Nope," he says. "I don't think we want to set up base in a tomb."

Rey is staring around her with horror. "Something terrible happened here," she whispers, walking slowly over to the bones and kneeling. He watches her warily, ready to step in if she has some kind of Force breakdown. She reaches out, but pulls her hand away quickly, her eyes squeezed shut.

"Can you sense anything?" Poe asks, regretting it immediately. Of course she can; he feels the weight of the stone above him, the ghosts of the dead around him. She's a Jedi-in-training, and clearly she feels _more._ When she doesn't answer, he touches her on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go. No need to put yourself through this, we're not coming here."

She gasps and jumps up, stumbling backward, and he catches her before she trips. "What did you see?" he asks in alarm, looking wildly around the cave as if expecting something to attack them. His light catches on the skeletons by the door, illuminating the horror. "What is it?" It is obvious she's seen, or felt, something through the Force.

"He was a Jedi," she says, her voice low as she stares at the former corpse. "He was attacked, mauled by creatures from outside, in the canyon." They glance at the small opening to the cave. "He dragged himself inside, but they followed him, and he defeated them at the cave entrance. He died a horrible, painful death. Alone."

"That explains all the bad feelings then," Poe says, and jerks his head to the exit. "Let's go." He starts forward, but she grabs his arm.

"Wait," she says, looking back to the small camp area. "He was a Jedi. I should…I want to see if he left anything behind. To know who he was."

Poe glances at the skeleton on the ground, thinks to himself _He's dead, that's what he is. _But he nods and follows her over to the small camp area. They search through the metal cases. Poe finds another lamp, some plasma power cells, and a blaster tucked in with some other weapons, while Rey finds an old Mandalorian power shield next to the Jedi's lightsaber, half buried in the dirt near the skeleton. She holds up the blade almost reverently.

"You were right," Poe says, though he never doubted it. "He was a Jedi."

"What was he doing here, you think?" she asks.

Poe rocks back on his heels. "Judging by the state of this stuff, it's been here a long time, but not centuries. My guess is he was escaping the Jedi Purge. Most of the Jedi were killed back when the Empire took over, but some escaped and were hunted down."

"He wasn't hunted down," she said, shaking her head. "At least, not by the Empire. Something else killed him, those creatures."

"Maybe he was hiding here, then." Poe looks around once more. "We haven't seen any other signs of life, though, so whatever killed him must be long gone, nothing but dust and bone."

The other two metal cases hold a supply of tinned food rations, water pods, an old medpac and more blankets. And there is one smaller box, hidden in a fissure in the wall behind them. Inside is an old, decaying book and a data chip. Rey puts both in her satchel, looking more hopeful. "These will tell me more," she says. "I know it."

"Ready, then?" Poe asks, and he stands up to leave. She nods her head, though she's staring at something in the dark on the other side of the cavern. "Or is there something else we should check out?"

"No," she says quickly. "But I think there's more to this cave than just skeletons. There's something here, in the Force. I think Master Skywalker called it a vergence, or a nexus. Like the cave on Ahch-To. Maybe it's what drew him here, the Jedi."

"And when he got here, he was attacked by the local wildlife." Poe starts toward the door. "Still doesn't feel like a great place for a base, if you ask me."

"I agree," says Rey. Poe turns and gives her a smile.

"Finn will be impressed," he says, and offers a wink. "We actually agreed about something."

"We agree," she protests, then amends it. "Sometimes. Rarely."

They laugh easily and step outside. Only the cloudy day they'd left behind is gone, and a fierce wind is whipping through the darkening canyon, almost pulling them off their feet.

"What the hell!" Poe shouts over the gale. "We weren't in there that long!"

A scrubby branch from a long-dead tree sails by and hits Rey on the arm; dirt flies into Poe's eyes and he steps back into the safety of the cave to check his scanner.

"What is it?" Rey asks. Her hair is a mess; Poe imagines his only looks worse.

He swears again, turns his scanner to show her the bad news. "Massive storm rolling in on top of us. I swear there was nothing on the scopes when we got here."

"I believe you," she murmurs. There's a blinding crack of lightning that makes them both jump. Poe is pretty sure Rey mutters an oath under her breath. "It's like a sandstorm on Jakku. They can come out of anywhere with almost no warning."

"If the weather is that unpredictable, that's yet another reason to cross this place off the list and get out of here." They exchange a look, silently agreeing this time, and Poe steps back out, hoping they can beat the storm back to the ship, even if it means facing the howling wind. Rey follows close behind, but they've gone barely twenty meters when the skies open up, instantly blinding them and turning the canyon floor to mud. Poe barely hesitates before he turns her around and pushes her back toward the cave. At first, she resists, shouting something at him he can't hear. When they get back to the cave, they are drenched.

"Why did you turn around?" she demands. "We need to get back to the ship!"

"We'd never make it," he tells her. It had been his first thought as well, but he's messed up enough over the last several months to know better than to trust his more impulsive thoughts: they've got him into as much trouble as they have out of it, and this is different. He's not taking any chances with Rey, even if she does drive him mad sometimes. She opens her mouth to argue, but he stops her. "Trust me, I've been in situations like this before. I've gone down in them. You think you can get ahead of a system like this, but you can't. Better to wait it out."

"In here?" she asks. "Together?"

"I don't bite," Poe tells her over his shoulder as he heads back to the Jedi's camp. "At least, not unless someone asks."

"What?"

"Never mind." He grins to himself, pulling out the ancient lantern and whooping when it not only turns on, but it's warm. "Oh, brilliant! It's an old fusion furnace." He takes a tattered blanket from the metal cases and lays it on the ground for her, another for himself. "Come on, get warm and dry out. We'll head back up as soon as it blows over."

She sighs and sits down, holding her hands in front of the heat. Poe does the same opposite her, pulling out his much cleaner emergency blanket and toweling off his hair and his jacket. He leans up against one of the old boxes, sighs, and closes his eyes. Almost like camping in the ruins on Yavin IV, he thinks. Except for the dead Jedi nearby.

"Are you actually going to sleep?" Rey asks. "How can you sleep at a time like this?"

"I'm a pilot," Poe replies without opening his eyes. "I learned to sleep whenever and wherever I could, including overnight in the cockpit."

He cracks open an eye to find she's taken out her blanket, as well as a water pod. She's also staring into the darkness with a strained look on her face. Poe sits up.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I forgot there's one of those Force things here. Are you going to be okay?"

She looks at him in surprise, either that he's still awake or that he's expressing concern, but then she smiles and nods. "I'll be fine. It's not as bad as Ahch-To." She hasn't said much about the planet where she spent time with Luke Skywalker, at least to him. They don't talk about much besides the missions they're on, or gossip around the base, or occasionally Leia, whom they both worry about.

After a silence, Poe decides to ask. "What was it like, this place on Ahch-To?" When she's silent, he nods. "That bad, huh. Why don't you close your eyes, then? I'll keep mine open for anything weird, let you know when the storm is over." Her expression is skeptical. "Promise!"

She shakes her head. "It called me," she says quietly. "The cave. Master Luke said it was strong with the Dark Side, and yet it called me, and I went. I fell, so far, into a pool of water cold as ice. And when I came out, I saw myself, in a mirror reflected hundreds, thousands of times."

Poe did not speak, sensing there was no need. He didn't know what to say anyway.

"Two dark figures approached from the other side of the mirror, and I was so…" She looks up at him, then away. "I was so excited, and scared at the same time. I felt…I thought they were my parents. That I would finally know my family. But as they came closer, they merged, until the only person standing in the mirror was me. Alone."

She clears her throat, stares into the lamp. "And that's when I knew, they were dead. I'm alone. Master Skywalker said it was a test. I don't know if I passed. I hope I did."

"Oh." He's almost sorry he asked, because it makes no sense to him, and sounds like it was difficult to share for her. "You're not alone, you know," he offers. "You have us."

She glances up with a look that seems strangely shy. "I know that now. At the time, I didn't. I just wanted to find my family, my place."

"I'm sorry that you didn't find what you were looking for." Poe thinks he knows how she feels, in a way. He's spent much of his life searching for something, never quite sure what it is. He'd always thought it was flying, but then he'd run away, looking for belonging, when it was exactly where he'd left it. When he'd come back to his family, he joined the New Republic, hoping to find meaning and purpose. Questioning that had lead him to the Resistance, where he was still chasing the future, searching for…well, something.

"It's okay, I think," she says. "Because I found something else." He can tell she's still figuring it out, though, and says so.

"You're just not sure what."

"You know, you can be annoyingly perceptive sometimes," she tells him. "Which is even worse than being annoying."

"I'm not annoying," Poe protests. "I'm…an acquired taste. You'll get used to me. Everybody does."

She rolls her eyes at him again. "That's what Finn keeps saying. Don't tell him, but I already have."

"You have?" he asks in surprise. "And here I thought I had my work cut out for me."

"No, you still do." She grins slyly at him, a sort of half smirk that he can't read. "Especially with Finn."

Poe feels his face scrunch up in confusion, which is probably why she bursts out laughing. "What do you mean, with Finn? We get a long great!"

"I know," she says with that same look.

"So?"

"So what?" The innocent act doesn't work on him.

"What about Finn?"

She smiles, this time more naturally. "He's an amazing person. Special."

She's hinting at something, but he's not sure what. He does know that his heart does little flip over it, but he's not quite sure why. Or maybe he is and he doesn't want to admit it.

"You've said that before," Poe reminds her. He wags his eyebrows. "You're not…you know…"

This time she gives him a disparaging look. "Definitely not. Didn't you already ask him that?" He nods sheepishly, slightly embarrassed to be caught at being nosey, and she continues. "He's a good friend."

"The best," Poe says softly. Rey chuckles to herself.

"Oh Poe," she says. They are silent for a long moment. "Do you mind if I meditate?" she asks, out of the blue. "I want to try and understand this place more."

He nods slowly, concerned. "Is it safe? Because from what you said about Ahch-To, it sounds like these sorts of places usually aren't."

"I don't think it's the same," she says. "And I have to know, I don't want to leave without knowing."

"Sometimes it's not worth poking the bantha," he tells her. "Been there, done that." Many times, and it always got him in trouble. But from the stubborn look on her face, he'll never talk her out of it. "Be careful."

"I will." She goes to sit closer to the dark corner of the cave, and Poe decides he is going to keep an eye on her, in case anything goes wrong. He knows little about the Force, except that it can be as dangerous and dark as it is beautiful and light. So he settles back against the metal cabinet, pulls out a ration bar, and tinkers with some of the old equipment while he waits for the storm to end.

* * *

Author's Note:

This is a story about Poe and Rey, though in no way a romance; I am a Finn/Poe shipper through and through, and there are a few hints of that here. I wrote it to go with a scene in the third part, and because I wanted to explore their friendship based on some of the enigmatic interactions we saw between them in The Rise of Skywalker. Many thanks to goldenroses13 for helping me out with some uncooperative details! This story is four parts and almost finished. Updates every few days. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

II.

Poe jerks awake when his head falls forward and his chin hits his chest. He's been lulled to sleep by the dark, by the cold surrounding them and the heat maintaining them, and most of all, by Rey's light chanting. He hopes he wasn't out for long as he stretches his neck and shoulders, then stands.

Rey is still on the other side of the cave, but she seems all right. He decides to check on the weather. Scanners tell him it's clearing up, with nothing else behind it; a quick check outside tells him its cold and wet, but the wind and rain has stopped. Unfortunately, it's getting dark; they've been in the cave for almost three hours.

He walks over to Rey, gently touches her shoulder and is grateful when he doesn't startle her. She lets out a long breath, opens her eyes, and nods. He can't tell what she's thinking, or feeling, whether she's had success or failure. She follows him back to the ancient Jedi camp and sits down for some water.

"All right?" he asks. He doubts she'll confide in him, and is surprised when she smiles.

"All right," she says. "It's definitely some sort of nexus, but it's not the Dark side, not exactly. It's more primal. Actually a bit boring, to be honest." She smiles and shrugs. "I think I dozed off."

"Me too," Poe laughs. "If you're ready, we should try to make it back to the ship before dark."

"Is it safe?" she asks.

"I looked outside, and it's a mess, but the wind and rain has stopped," Poe replies. "So not the best conditions, but better than scrambling up those rocks after nightfall."

"I'm worried about whatever creatures attacked our Jedi."

Poe picks up his scanner and runs it again, but there are no lifeform readings other than their own for several meters. "Still nothing. I say we go, before it's too late."

They head outside; it's already colder than it was last time he checked. It's going to be a miserable climb out of the canyon, and that's if they can even find their way now that half the area is mud. They search for a way up that isn't completely washed away, and are moving farther and farther away from the cave when they hear it: the distinct sound of rocks falling into the puddles around them from the top of the canyon above.

Poe exchanges a look with Rey. He takes out his blaster, she unhooks her lightsaber. They slow down, each of them scanning opposite sides of the canyon, searching the top of the rocks. They are no longer alone, Poe is certain.

Before he can check his scanner, there is a low snarl from his right, and then from behind him. In front of them, more rocks tumble to the floor of the canyon. A snuffling echoes through the air.

"There's something alive in here," Rey says, looking around the area for whatever it is. "Only I can't sense it."

That stops Poe, makes his blood run cold. "What? You can't sense it with the Force?" She shakes her head, and he swallows. "That's not good. Really not good." He doesn't need to be a Jedi to know there's something out there, and if it can hide from the Force, it's going to be dangerous.

"I don't know what can do that," she says. "But I agree. Maybe we should—"

"Run!" Poe shouts, and grabs her hand. She yanks it back (Finn liked to joke about that, now Poe has his own story to tell) and runs by his side, both of them trying to find a way up out of the canyon. Poe makes the mistake of glancing behind him and sees what's chasing him: it's like a hound from hell, the size of a bear only faster, all fangs and claws and barbed tail, and there are at least six of them, red as blood. He runs faster, a sinking feeling in his gut: they should be running back toward the cave and defending it.

"We need to get up above them!" he shouts at Rey. She barely hesitates, then find a path. Poe follows quickly, has the wild hope that maybe the things behind them can't climb.

They can.

And they are just as fast on the rocky incline, whereas Poe and Rey are running and falling and staggering back, cutting their hands and knees on the rocks when they are not slipping in the mud. Poe goes left, finds an opening and gets above Rey, offering a hand when she slips. She takes it this time, then shouts as one of the beasts grabs her around the ankle with its gruesome teeth. Poe reaches out with his other hand, but before he can grab her arm, she's gone, sliding down the rocky incline, half a dozen of the ravening beasts hissing and growling and rolling with her.

For one second, Poe is paralyzed, then his blaster is out and he prays to the stars he doesn't hit Rey as he tries to take them out. He shoots at least two before he sees her lightsaber ignite, and after several slashes—what kind of animal can withstand a lightsaber, anyway?—one of them flies apart and the others back up. She tries to stand, but her ankle is a mangled mess, and her free hand is wrapped around her right side, hugging her ribs. The last three beasts are circling her as she shouts up at Poe.

"Run! Get back to the ship!"

"Are you insane?" he shouts back. "They'll eat you alive!"

"I can handle them!"

"You can barely walk!" He starts the wet slide down to where she's turning in a slow circle, holding off the last three, taking down one as he gets closer. What is strange is that none of them pay him any attention, even when he's clearly a threat from behind. If he didn't know better, he'd say they were drawn to Rey.

Before he can get to her, eight more of the monsters appear from below, hopping easily up the canyon. Rey slices one before going down in a tangle of red-scaled arms and legs, tumbling down the incline all the way to the bottom. Poe's heart practically stops and his vision narrows. It's like when he's in his X-wing, in the heat of battle, and he sees only what he needs to see.

With a preternatural calm, he stops running, settles his stance, and takes down the remaining beasts. Just like that, like taking out a TIE squadron, every last one. He couldn't do it again if he tried. Glancing around the area, he waits for more, and when they don't come snarling at him, he hurries down to Rey.

She's in bad shape, unconscious and bleeding, her ankle mangled from where the first one grabbed her. Her head is bleeding from a deep cut, and he can only imagine the internal injuries she must have from falling so far. The problem is, she's fallen down to the canyon floor, and Poe's not sure he can get her up on his own in her state. He needs to at least stabilize her first, before finding a path up the canyon wall that isn't mud.

And then he hears a howl in the near distance, and another, and his decision is made. With a surge of adrenaline, he lifts her into his arms and starts for the cave, staggering in the mud. He sets her down in the back before hurrying to the entrance. He can hear more creatures approaching, and looks wildly for something to block the door, only there's nothing but bones. If Rey were awake, she could float a rock over the entrance, but she's not, and he can't use the Force. He also can't defend it forever: their dead Jedi proved that. He needs some kind of shield.

Scrambling back to the metal containers, he searches for something, anything, he can rig into a shield of some kind. He can't believe his luck when he remembers the Mandalorian power shield in the dirt next to the skeleton. He grabs some extra powers cells, the arm shield, and hurries back over to the entrance.

The beasts are prowling outside the door, but not entering. If they're drawn to the Force, he'd expect the nexus Rey sensed to draw them in. He wonders if it's a natural fear of dark spaces that's keeping them out, or perhaps just this one, where so many died fighting the Jedi. Either way, it gives him time. Because even if they are reluctant now, he suspects they will overcome it once they realize Rey is inside and not coming out. He needs to shield the entrance, and rigging the Mandaloian shield is the only thing he can think of; he hopes it will be big enough for the entrance.

His hands are shaking as he connects the extra power cells to the shield and turns it on, breathing out in relief when it activates after so many years. He is about to start working on reversing the polarity when one of the creatures takes a tentative step into the cave. Poe grabs his blaster and fires several shots, dropping it instantly. Maybe if more follow, he can build a wall of corpses and bones.

The thought is macabre even for him, and he laughs it off somewhat hysterically, his hands still shaking as he works with the delicate mechanics of the shield. Rey probably would have been done by now, but she's still unconscious in the back and he's all she's got, so he has to be good enough. He has to get it right this time. Another animal pokes its head into the dark, and Poe shoots it in the head.

The others start up an unearthly howl outside, turning Poe's blood to ice once again. He tweaks one more connection on the shield; hopefully it will repel anything that tries to come through with a strong shock, because he can't sit there forever picking them off. He needs to help Rey, come up with a plan. Blaster raised in case any more beasts try to enter, he sets the shield behind the body of one of the dead creatures and activates it.

The shield bursts to life. Another beast approaches, sniffs at it curiously, and jumps back with a pained cry when it comes into contact with the hazy barrier, the smell of burnt flesh strong. The ancient device should recharge itself, and as long as they don't run at it all at once, the shield should hold for a while.

The beasts prowl outside, hissing and spitting and growling, and Poe feels like he's trapped in some horror-holo, the kind he always hated growing up, but that had been so popular at the academy. His energy leaves in a great rush of relief that they are temporarily safe, and he staggers back over to Rey, collapsing beside her. Which is when he realizes his own injury: a gash on his leg, bleeding profusely. He must have hit a rock on his way down.

He rips part of an old blanket and binds it up; it's all he can do, he needs to help Rey. She's shivering on the ground, her breathing shallow, and he turns on the fusion furnace. Poe takes out both their medpacs—much too small for what he needs now—and finds several bacta patches that he places on her deeper lacerations, especially the one of her head. He uses antiseptics on the rest, stabilizes her ankle, and gives her a shot of whatever medicine was in the medpac, hopefully one for pain. It is the injuries he cannot see that worry him the most. He doesn't have a medical scanner, but he suspects she's broken several ribs with internal injuries. And she's still unconscious. He's not sure what else he can do for her besides get her out.

Naturally he tries his comms, and of course they are out of range in the cave. If they'd flown in X-wings, he'd have BB-8 with him, and the droid would have his ship there in no time. But BB-8 is with Finn and Chewbacca, and Poe wonders what he was thinking leaving the droid behind. What Leia was thinking sending him out with Rey, in a junker ship, to a desolate moon full of creatures from nightmares.

Forcing his hands to stop shaking again, he tries to come up with a plan. He doesn't want to leave her, but by the time Rey is ready to travel, _if _she can travel, it will be night, and too dark to chance the climb. And with more creatures outside, he's not sure how to get her out of the cave anyway. They seemed interested in her, far more interested than in him. He's almost certain it has to do with the Force, and that it's connected to the nexus she felt, and the dead Jedi they'd found. It doesn't make sense—attacking Rey and the Jedi yet afraid to come near the cave—but it's all he's got. Perhaps they really were reluctant to return to the sight of a slaughter. With over a dozen lying dead outside, perhaps the rest will leave and the canyon will empty by morning.

The cave is growing colder, and Poe moves closer to the furnace, sitting across from Rey. He lets his head fall back and tries not to panic. He's been in worse scrapes before, and always got out. So he's got his experience, at least, but not much else. A little help, or even inspiration, would be good.

Rey regains consciousness with a groan, and Poe moves beside her, because sure enough, she tries to sit up.

"Lay down," he tells her. "You've got all sorts of fun things going on."

"I can tell," she says, and lays back without any argument, which must mean it's bad. "What happened?"

"You were attacked by some kind of ravenous beast from hell," Poe replies. "They dragged you down the slope."

She seems to be looking into the past, remembering the attack. "There were too many of them," she whispers. "I tried to fight them off, but I couldn't."

"And I tried to shoot them off, but I couldn't, not in time," Poe says. "I'm sorry."

She frowns and turns her head toward him. "Are you okay? Did they get you?"

"No, I think they like Jedi."

Another frown. "What?"

"They _all_ went after you, Rey," Poe tells her. "I think they're attracted to the Force." He waves his hand around the cave. "Could be why they're here, although I think whatever happened with our dead Jedi has made them leery about coming in and finishing us off."

"But I couldn't feel them through the Force," Rey protests. "I never sensed anything."

Poe thinks about it. "Then they probably have some sort of Force camo. It's not unheard of. There are creatures who are able to hide from it, even repel it."

"What were they?" Rey asks. "And where are they now?"

"Well, some more showed up, but I rigged a shield for our little cave here using that old Mandalorian power shield—"

"How?" Of course she would ask, she's always tinkering back in the cave on Ajan Kloss.

"Hooked it up to some extra power cells and reversed the polarity to shock any of 'em that try to come through," he tells her. He's a little proud of it, and even more so when she smiles up at him. He's not trying to impress her, but sometimes she seems more exasperated with him than anything else.

"Nice work," she tells him. "That was quick thinking."

"Thanks. It should keep them out for a while. As for what they were…" Poe thinks about it, childhood memories returning. "They looked like some sort of nighthunter."

"I don't know about nighthunters," Rey tells him. "Do you have anything to drink?"

He gets her a water pod from their packs, helps her lift her head to drink. "Nighthunters were ancient beasts, supposed to be extinct. Read about them as a kid, in storybooks, but I never really believed in them. I figured it was something adults made up to scare us."

"Apparently not," she murmurs. "You could be in a storybook now."

"Nah, my book's not going to be about monsters, it'll be about flying," he tells her, forcing a smile. She's closed her eyes, and Poe feels a spike of worry, that her condition is quickly worsening.

"I'm fine," she says, then coughs, but it doesn't sound good. "Well, not exactly, but I will be. What's the plan?"

"We spend the night here," Poe tells her, holding up a hand when she starts to protest. "We can't face them in the dark anyway. Hopefully by morning we can come up with another plan for getting back to the ship." He watches, her face tight with pain. "Can I get you anything? Do anything?"

She shakes her head and winces. "Keep talking, I suppose."

"Oh, I can talk your ear off, you know."

"I know." She glances at him and frowns. "Poe, why do you think Leia really sent me here?"

He has his suspicions, wonders if Rey does as well. "Like I said, it was good practice for the Y-wing, and probably a short break from your other training."

She sighs. "But you think there's more to it."

"Do you?" he counters, but it takes her a long moment to answer.

"I think she wants us to get along better." She is almost whispering, though Poe isn't sure whether that's because she's embarrassed or weak. He nods, even though she is not looking at him.

"Yeah, you might be right about that." It's the unfortunate truth. It's not that they don't get along, but it's not like her and Finn. Or him and Finn. He and Rey butt heads more often, and in a different kind of way than they butt heads with everyone else. Poe's not threatened by her, wouldn't say he's intimidated by her, and certainly not scared of her…and yet. Leia wants them to work together.

"I'm sorry," she says, not looking at him. She tries to pull the blanket closer around her and winces, so he helps. "I don't know why it's like that."

"Me neither." He speaks softly, unsure. Part of it is that they are actually quite similar, though there is something at their core that is different, something that they haven't quite figured out how to balance.

"I don't want to take your place," she says. "I really don't."

"I know. And even if you did, we need you." Poe shrugs, trying not place value on their contribution to the Resistance, to compare. He's still trying to maintain a grip on his own self confidence and not spiral into a morass of failure and anxiety. They do need her, but at the same time, she's been wrapped up in her training for months, and they need her in the field, not as a mythical weapon for the future. Maybe that's part of it: he doesn't know where she stands, even if he believes she'll stand with them in the end.

"The Resistance needs you more," she says. "And don't be difficult and argue with me just to argue."

He laughs softly at that, because he does like to argue with her, sometimes for no good reason. "I wouldn't dream of it."

"Of course you would," she says. "You're difficult."

"So are you," he throws right back. "Stubborn."

"Arrogant."

"Willful."

She laughs, but it is weaker. "What was she thinking, sending us out together?"

"I don't know, but we'll get out of this. I'm not going to let anything else happen to you." It's an empty promise, and yet he means it. She's one of the prickliest people he knows, but he's come to care about her, and he knows how much she means to Finn, and Leia.

"I know." She says it with such simple conviction that Poe almost cringes, because why? She has no reason to believe in him, yet she does. Her faith is almost as pure and complete as Finn's.

"You sound like Finn," he murmurs.

"Finn," she says. "Maybe that's it."

He's not sure what she means. "Maybe he's what?"

"The problem."

"Finn is not a problem," Poe tells her vehemently. "You know that even better than I do. He's a good man, Rey. An amazing person. What are you talking about?"

"Maybe he's the problem for us," she says. She turns her head to look at him, as if gaging his reaction. He still doesn't follow.

"What do you mean, he's the problem for us?" As soon as he says it out loud, he thinks he might understand, and wonders if that could be part of it.

"You like Finn," she says. "I like Finn. But I like him differently than you do. You don't have to worry about me. It's not what you think it is."

"Oh." Poe is slightly stunned. Is that it, that he's jealous of her? Threatened by her relationship with Finn when he has his own perfectly good relationship with the former Stormtrooper? Because it's not like for him and Finn, is it? It's not that he's never thought about it, about Finn in a different way, but when he does, he shuts it down. It's not the right time, and he doesn't want to go there even if sometimes his body (and heart) does. They're fighting a war and any one of them could die the next day.

"Well, no worries, because it's not like that for us either."

"Oh, Poe," she sighs, as if she thinks he's lying to her. Which he's not. Could it be someday? Maybe. But Poe tries not to think about the future, because it's so uncertain, so far away. They have to win the war first, in order to truly live.

"Poe?" she asks, sounding weary. "Can I sleep now, or is that bad?" He moves closer to her, alarmed.

"Depends on what you mean by sleep," he tells her.

"Just sleep," she says. "I'm tired."

"Okay, but I'm going to check on you in a few hours, okay?" He lays down beside her. "And I'll be right here if you need anything."

She smiles at him. "Thanks."

She's asleep almost immediately; he can tell by the way her face relaxes. Laying on his back, Poe stares at the ceiling and thinks about what she said— about her, and him, and Finn. About relationships and the future. He feels incredibly shallow and ashamed, and he vows to be a better person, a better friend, to them both. No matter what happens, or what his heart wants.

* * *

Author's Note:

No worries, this story will remain canon! Would love to know if anyone is reading this considering it doesn't have a pairing tag. Let a girl know what you think? Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

III.

The first time he wakes her, Rey grumbles and snaps at him and goes right back to sleep. The second time, she complains about her leg and he gives her some more medicine. She also rambles about Chewbacca and BB-8 and Finn and how they're probably exploring some sunny, warm planet full of fluffy, baby Porgs. She says something about how Poe should have gone with Finn instead before she falls asleep, or loses consciousness. It's hard to tell.

After that, he sets the scanner to wake him and settles down next to her again. She feels unusually warm, and he has a hard time falling asleep, worrying as he tries to figure a way out of this. He's just drifted off when she starts moaning, and when he touches her forehead, she's now cold, so cold. Her eyes snap open and she grabs his hand in an unusually strong grip.

"Still with us, then," he says, hoping his voice sounds lighter than he feels. She looks terrible, her face pale, her eyes dull with pain. Her arm falls to the ground.

"Trying," she murmurs.

"That's good, because you confessed some pretty deep feelings for BB-8 earlier, and I'd hate for you not to get a chance to tell him." She looks confused, and he brushes some hair from her face. "I'm kidding," he says softly. "You're gonna be fine."

"Don't feel fine," she says. "I'm so tired, want to sleep." She opens her eyes and frowns up at him. "And I'm cold."

He knows from experience that neither is a good sign, but he's already given her all the blankets and medicine he can. "Tell you what," he says, maneuvering toward her head. "I'll keep you warm as long as you stay awake. And don't tell anyone I like to cuddle."

She smiles at that. "Won't tell Finn, that's for sure."

He laughs quietly as he pulls her closer, right next to the fusion furnace, cradling her upper body as gently as he can so he doesn't aggravate any injuries, trying to keep her warm. She feels so light in his arms.

"Come on, Rey," he says. "Stay awake. What won't you tell Finn? That we got ourselves stuck in a cave all night with monsters on the loose? He'd laugh at us."

She smiles at that. "Won't tell him you cuddled."

He shakes his head. "Good, 'cause he'd probably be jealous I got to spend the night with you in a creepy, dark cave. Although, you're not cuddling back much."

"Not jealous of you," she says. "Of me." Her smile is weak, and she coughs, and there is a small spot of blood that absolutely sends Poe's heart racing.

"Already told you, it's not like that," Poe tells her, hoping to distract them both.

"Why not?" she asks, voice hinting at her stubbornness even then, and he is startled by the question. She'd probably never ask such a thing point blank if she hadn't been injured and freezing in his arms. When he doesn't answer, she shifts a little, shakes his arm. "Poe, why not?"

"Rey," he starts, and she actually sticks out her tongue in response. Her lips are dry and he gives her some water.

"Thanks," she says, then goes right back to badgering him. "Have you ever thought about it?"

He feels his jaw set, trying to hold back the words. "Can't say."

"You mean, you won't say," she says. She takes a shallow breath in, lets it out in a slow release as if she's trying to stay relaxed. "You can. I won't tell anyone."

"I don't believe that," he tells her, but with a crooked smile. "But if it will keep you talking…then yes, I've thought about it." He can't believe he's admitted it to her, half hopes she'll forget everything in the morning. Yet her smile is genuine and warm and fills him with hope.

"Good," she says. "You should keep thinking about it." A tiny furrow appears in her brow. "But if you think about him like that, why haven't you said anything? Done anything?"

He considers what to say, how to explain something she may not have any way to understand. She's only been with them six months, after a lifetime alone on Jakku. He's been with the Resistance since he left the New Republic years ago, following Leia and a conscience that told him he needed to do something about the First Order. That conscience still drives him, tells him to keep fighting until the end. It doesn't leave much room for things like relationships and feelings.

"I need to do this now," he tells her. "Not get involved in something that may end with the next battle. I fight so there won't be any more battles, so other people can think about it. So they can say something, do something."

She is quiet, thinking or sleeping or trying to come up with another way to argue with him. Her next comment feels like it comes from nowhere and he wonders if she's growing delirious. "Leia once said your parents met during the Rebellion against the Empire, that she knew them."

"They fought at Hoth, and Endor, and a number of other battles, yes," he says. Pride flows side by side with sadness, and she frowns.

"What happened?" she asks. "They won, didn't they?"

"They did, and they left to raise a family, like so many others. It just didn't last."

"Tell me about it?" she asks. "Please? I'll stay awake, I promise."

So he takes a deep breath and settles down for the highlights of his life. He talks about his mother and her role in the war, about his father serving with Han Solo. He tells her how his mom taught him to fly in her A-wing, about his father and exploring the jungles of Yavin 4. Of everything he remembers growing up as a kid after the fall of the Empire. Of his mother's death and the hard times that followed. And that's where he stops.

"I'm sorry," she says, proving she is still awake. "I can't imagine how hard it was to lose her."

"Yes, you can," he reminds her. "It's not so different than your story, after all. I was lucky I had my dad."

"I'd like to meet him someday," she murmurs, and that makes him laugh out loud.

"Oh, he'd love you. He'd think of you as a daughter," he tells her honestly, because that's suddenly the only way he can think of explaining his relationship with her: like a sister that he both loves and who drives him mad.

"Is that how you know so much about the Jedi?" she asks. "From your parents?"

He nods even though her eyes are closed. "Yeah, my mom not only flew for Leia, but she flew with Luke Skywalker as well." That gets a reaction as her eyes open wide.

"Really?" she asks. "That's amazing."

"Yeah, it is," he says, shaking his head. "I met him a few times as a kid, so growing up with stories of the Jedi was normal. They weren't myth or legend, because I knew one."

"What was he like, before he disappeared?" she asks

"He was strong, and full of hope and honor," he tells her. "Everything you'd expect, really. The kind of man who would give his life to save someone." He drifts off, thinking of Luke's sacrifice on Crait, how he'd fought Kylo Ren and given them enough time to escape.

Rey doesn't answer, and he lets her rest, but when he feels her start to go limp in his arms, he grows alarmed. He runs a hand across her face, gently rubs her arm, but there is no response. Leaning forward, he feels a soft breath, yet her pulse is so slow. Panic begins to set in.

"Come on, Rey. Wake up." Nothing. He taps her face. "Be with me. You said it earlier, when you were meditating. You say it all the time. So be with me now. Now, Rey."

She murmurs the words so soft he can barely hear her, but the relief is palpable, that she's awake, alive.

"You can't leave us, you know," Poe tells her. "Because I do not want to tell Finn and Leia what happened. They will have my head if I lose you, so keep fighting, Rey. You keep fighting. For Finn."

"I keep telling you, it's not like that," she says with her eyes still closed.

"He loves you," Poe tells her. "You can't leave him now. He'll be devastated."

"He's got you," she says, opening her eyes with a smile. "You love him too." Yes, he loves Finn, but he knows what losing Rey will do to him. To all of them, if he's honest. Rey closes her eyes again and her breathing slows down even more.

"No, no, no," Poe says desperately. "Come on, Rey. Use the Force! You've still got so much to do, so much to learn. We need the Jedi, we need _you_."

"'Trying," she mumbles. "'s hard to stay awake."

"Stay awake, Rey. Have I ever told you about the Force tree Luke gave my parents? It's amazing, gorgeous…" He tells her about his mom's mission, describes the tree, waiting for a sign she is still listening. "I'll take you there, when this is all over. You won't believe it. Even I can feel it. We can take a piece of it, plant a new one wherever we settle down when this all is over."

"Sounds amazing," she murmurs. She sounds even weaker than she did moments ago. He can't believe he has the most powerful woman in the galaxy in his arms and she's dying. "I'm sorry…won't get to see it."

"No, you don't get to apologize," he practically growls. "You keep fighting." He pulls her even closer, trying to keep her warm, keep her with him. "Rey, I know I'm difficult, but you're like a sister to me now. You can't leave us. You can't leave _me." _His voice breaks and he holds her tight, willing her to say something, to give him a hard time for being so emotional, anything.

She doesn't wake up this time.

She's still alive, but barely. Her chest hardly moves, her pulse is so slow. He bows his head and gives into the despair, that she may very well die in his arms. That he will have to tell Finn—and all the others—that he lost her. And that she will never get to realize her potential as the first of the new Jedi.

It is that last more than anything that moves him. He is not going to let her die. She's already been through so much, she deserves to live. Something hot ignites within him, a steely determination to get her out of there and to safety. He sets her down as close to the heat as he can and covers her with blankets. He stands and stretches his cramped and stiff body, grabs his scanner and goes to the entrance. The nighthunters are still out there. The weather appears clear, and to his surprise and relief, a hint of light is starting to fill the canyon. Apparently, nights are short on this rock, and he couldn't be more glad for it. He needs to get her out.

Searching through the old Jedi's cases once more, Poe takes stock of what he has: his weapon plus his backup, an old blaster from sometime around the Clone Wars, some more power cells, and surprisingly enough, several flash grenades. A plan starts to form, as crazy and insane as all of his plans. But he has no choice: he needs to get Rey to the ship. And since it's a twenty-minute climb up a steep cliff with nighthunters prowling about, there's no way he can get her there safely. He's going to have to bring the ship to her.

Not for the first time, he wishes BB-8 was with them.

Poe quickly pulls together everything he could possibly need, including the old Jedi lightsaber, and heads back to the door. The energy shield keeping the nighthunters out (and he'll never get over how he managed to pull that one off) should let a grenade through from his side. He takes several deep breaths, whispers a silent prayer to the stars, and throws it out of the cave. After ten counts, it detonates, shaking the canyon and momentarily distracting the nighthunters with a bright light and lots of echoing noise. He slips out of the cave and runs, but they pay him almost no attention, confirming his theory: they are drawn to Rey, to the Force. Not to him.

Because they virtually ignore him, he's able to get to higher ground quickly and take out at least three of them. Several finally notice him and move closer, growling low in their throats, long sinuous tails moving behind them. But most remain by the cave, and Poe needs to draw them away in case they decide to take a chance and enter. He ignites the old lightsaber.

"Hey!" he shouts, waving it around and hoping it has enough connection to the Force to at least spark an interest in the creatures. "Hey, over here, you dragon-eyed son of a bantha!" For the most part, it works, and more start toward him. When they are far enough away from the cave entrance, he throws the power cells he'd tied together, launching them over the nighthunters' heads, then hits them with his blaster. There is a large explosion that knocks most of the beasts off their feet. He picks them all off as they struggle to recover, including two who stayed behind at the cave.

He can't believe it's actually working.

He waits for a moment, listening, then turns to scramble up the slope. He is almost to the top when one last beast comes barreling at him from the side, knocking him down. He kicks it off hard and claws his way to the top of the canyon, needing to get to firm, flat ground to fight it. He feels a sharp prick in his upper thigh. Thinking he's going to see a set of fangs wrapped around his leg, instead he sees the pointed end of the creature's tail coming around for another hit.

Scrambling to stand, Poe almost collapses as his leg begins to go numb. Whatever it did, it kriffing burns, and he can barely walk. The beast follows him to the top and is prowling around him, as if waiting for him to succumb. It is only one, though, and he can take it, as long as he can stand. But even as he turns to follow its circles, his leg gives out, and he falls to his knees. The nighthunter leaps toward him, teeth and fangs everywhere. Poe lashes out on instinct, not with his blaster, but with the saber. It strikes the creature's hide and bounces off, so he swings again, and then again, and this time he slices it in half, gaping maw so close to his face he has to duck and roll away. It falls to either side of him, dead, and Poe collapses on his back, struggling to breathe. If there are any more, he's a dead man, but there's nothing. It might finally be over.

Except that it's not, because he's got to get the ship to Rey, get Rey back to base, and maybe do something about his own injuries as well. He stands and staggers over to the ship, literally dragging his leg behind him, tears streaming down his face from the pain and utter uselessness of his leg. It takes all his upper body strength to pull himself up the ladder and climb into the cockpit, where he throws the switch and doesn't bother waiting for the starting sequence. He takes off as soon as the first light tells him he can, swooping up and down into the canyon toward the cave.

And _of course _there are more nighthunters, though stars knows where they're coming from when not a single damn one shows up on the scanners. He sets the ship down, pulls himself into the gunner's seat, and blasts every single one of them to pieces. If he wasn't mad as hell, he might feel bad about killing so many of them; the canyon is a bloodbath, with the bodies of dead nighthunters literally piling up. But it's a matter of life and death, and once they are all silent and motionless, he falls down the ladder and limps through the corpses toward the cave.

He grabs everything he can before hoisting Rey over his shoulder, the one opposite his numb leg. It feels like it takes hours to stagger out to the ship, though he only falls to his knees once, swearing vehemently. He is breathing hard by the time they get to the ladder, and he has no idea how to get her up. For a moment, he collapses in the blood and dirt, tears streaming down his face. But they are so close, he refuses to give up. It would really help if Rey was awake and could use the Force, even a little.

Somehow, he gets her into the gunner's seat and straps her in, terrified of what he's done to aggravate her injuries. Somehow, he pulls himself into the cockpit, starts the takeoff sequence, and pulls the ship off the ground. And somehow, he gets them into space, where the first thing he does is set the autopilot with shaking hands to take them back to base as fast as possible.

He sends a message to the _Falcon,_ hoping they will receive it and maybe come to help, or at least meet them at the base. And then Poe lets his head fall to the side with a sad, breathy laugh. He's not sure either one of them are going to make it, but at least they're not trapped on some desolate space moon anymore, being hunted by monsters from the past. At least they have a chance.

Poe loses consciousness, and never hears the frantic call from the _Falcon._

* * *

Author's Note:  
Final chapter in a few days. Thank you for reading, those few of you who've ventured outside the pairing tags! Let me know if it warrants the Poe/Finn tag, especially after the last chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

IV.

The sound of quiet voices wakes him from a dark dream. Poe listens, but they are far away, whispering in the blackness. He opens his eyes, and finds himself blinking away bright light in confusion. There is a steady beeping sound nearby, and he shuts his eyes against the light and sound, trying to remember where he was, what happened…

He'd got them back to the Y-wing and into the air. And somehow, he'd even set course for the base and sent out a distress call to the _Falcon._ Yet he wasn't in the cockpit anymore, and he wasn't on the _Falcon, _which meant that unless the First Order had him strapped down somewhere, he'd made it back to the base. Home.

"Rey?' he calls out, panic filling his lungs. The beeping is grows louder, and then someone is holding his hand, calling his name, and Poe opens his eyes once more, squinting against the light. Finn is beside him, his voice calm and telling him to focus, to breathe, because he's okay, he's going to be okay, he's home.

Poe stares into his eyes and believes him, and little by little, his heart settles and the panic recedes. "Rey?" he asks again, and Finn nods.

"She's all right. Better than you, that's for sure."

"What?" Poe asks. He tries to sit up, but Finn puts a hand on his chest. Poe shakes his head and keeps pushing, forcing Finn to help him up. Once he's sitting, he glances around the small area they've sectioned off for medical. Rey is in a bed next to him.

"She fell asleep again a little while ago," Finn tells him. "She was up long before you, even had something to eat. We've been sitting around, waiting for you." He says it lightly, but Poe doesn't feel it, can almost sense Finn's worry.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I don't understand. Why've I been asleep for so long? What happened? How did we even get here?"

Finn frowns. "How much do you remember?"

"I remember feeling pretty shit by the time we were ready to take off," Poe admits. "But I figured it was a hard adrenaline crash more than anything. I got us up, set the course, and called for help."

"And we got the call," says Finn. "But when we signaled you, there was no answer. We ended up finding you at the edge of the system and pulling you in with us."

"How'd you land the Y-wing?" Never mind the details, what about the ship? They couldn't afford to lose even one junker.

"Not well," Finn admits. "But well enough we can use it again. Jess is already tinkering."

Poe is silent, thinking about the timeline of it all. "How long?" he asks. "How long since we got back?"

"Yesterday morning," Finn tells him. "You were both in pretty bad shape."

"Rey?" Poe asks. He feels like a broken droid. "These things, they took her down a cliff, hurt her pretty bad."

"Yeah, they did," Finn replies. "She told us as much as she remembered. She had a serious injury to her leg, a concussion, and several of internal injuries. You patched up everything else pretty well."

"And me?" asked Poe. "Why was I out of it so long? Why can't I remember how we even got here?"

Finn frowns again, places his hand on top of Poe's again. "Can you move your leg?" he asks. "Your left leg?"

Which is when Poe realizes he can't. He knows it's there, can in fact sense it, but he can't move it. Another wave of panic washes over him. "What happened? Why can't I move my leg?"

"It's some kind of poison," Finn tells him. "There was a puncture wound on your thigh, do you remember it happening?"

Poe struggles to remember the flight up the cliff back to the ship. He'd taken out the entire pack of nighthunters except one, a scout waiting on the rocks for him. It had attacked and he had managed to kill it, but not before it had sunk something sharp from its tail into his thigh.

"Yeah," he says. "One of 'em got me on the way back to the ship. So there's something in their tails?"

"It causes paralysis," Finn tells him. "And it's taking its time wearing off." Poe closes his eyes and tries not to think about walking again, or flying, when he feels Finn's hand squeeze his and holds tight to it this time. "You'll walk fine, Poe, and fly. It should only be another day or two until it all clears your system."

Poe opens his eyes and smiles. "Picking up some tips from Dr. Kalonia?" he asks lightly, and Finn grins back.

"We do both spend a lot of time here, you know."

"Don't remind me," Poe murmurs, then blows out a long breath. "Well, it was a complete bust, except for Rey. She found someold Jedi stuff, before it all went to hell."

"And you came back with a lightsaber," Finn says, taking his hand back and crossing his arms over his chest like a school teacher about to deliver a lecture. "Giving up flying, then?"

"Uh, no way," Poe tells him with an embarrassed laugh. "The things that got us—"

"Rey said you called them nighthunters."

"That'd be my guess," Poe replies. "The nighthunters definitely liked her better, and I'm pretty sure it's a Force thing. I used the saber to get their attention."

Finn pulls up a chair. The noise wakes Rey, who sits up and smiles at Poe, a radiant, happy smile, and for once, it's for him, not Finn. "Poe!" she exclaims. "You're awake!" She throws off her blanket and hobbles over to his bed, embracing him tightly. Poe looks at Finn in surprise; Finn rolls his eyes.

"She's been asking about you almost as much as you asked about her when you woke up," he grumbles. "Poe this and Poe that."

"I tend to have that effect on people," he laughs, and she pulls away. She wiggles into place at the end of the bed and rubs his leg. He can feel it, but not respond to it, and he frowns at the reminder.

"You'll walk," she tells him. "But it got you good."

"It was one sting," Poe complains. "You fell down a cliff into a pile of snarling Force beasts and almost died, and still woke up before me."

"You pushed yourself too hard," she tells him quietly, reaching for his hand. "I don't know how you did it, and I don't think I'll ever be able to thank you enough."

Finn is watching them again, pulls his chair closer and sets his hand next to Poe's free one, fingers brushing, as if claiming a part of him as well. "What happened?" he asks. "After Rey got hurt and you made it back to the cave?"

Poe groans, not particularly wanting to relive it, but then again, Rey was unconscious and probably deserves to know. So he tells them how he barricaded the cave, kept watch over her. She remembers most of that, nods and smiles, gives him a knowing look at one point, as if she remembers their talk about a certain ex-Stormtrooper. He's glad she doesn't say anything.

"Then you passed out for good," he says. "And that was it, I had to get you out no matter what. So I set off some flash grenades to distract the nighthunters and ran up the cliff. Used the lightsaber to get their attention and draw them away, blew up a couple of those old power cells on top of 'em so I could pick them off easier. When I got to the top of the cliff, one of them got me, but I sliced him in half." He grins at Rey. "Not that I plan on carrying a saber anytime soon, but it might have been a little bit cool."

"That's amazing!" she says. "Then what? You didn't carry me up the cliff, I know that."

"I made it to the ship," he tells them. "I brought it down to the canyon and got you into the gunner's seat. As soon as we hit the atmosphere, I set course for home and sent a message to the _Falcon." _

"And passed out completely," adds Finn in that dry way he has. "Kriff, you two. I have never been so scared as when they popped open that canopy and found you both unconscious."

Rey reaches for his hand. "We're all right, thanks to you finding us and bringing us in."

"Hey, where's BB-8?" asks Poe. "He was with you on the _Falcon,_ right?"

"He's with Jess looking at the Y-wing," says Finn. "We shooed him away when he couldn't stop sad beeping at your bedside. I think he wanted to make you a new leg from his own spare parts."

Poe laughs out loud, and Finn grins. "How was your mission, then?" Poe asks. "Find anything?"

"No luck for us either, but at least we didn't get routed by a bunch of puppies."

"Hey, they were big, ugly, vicious monster dogs," Poe tells him, and Rey nods in agreement. "I think we did pretty well considering the odds."

They are silent for a moment, comfortable and warm and safe, and Poe is about to ask Rey about her Jedi book when she cocks her head as if she heard something, then leaves her seat at the end of the bed. "I'm going to let BB-8 know you're awake," she tells them, and grabs a crutch to limp from the room before either of them can say anything. Poe wonders if he said something wrong and frowns at the door before turning to Finn.

Finn, who is looking at him fondly, yet also with exasperation. He shakes his head before Poe can even ask.

"She's just being Rey, always running off for some reason or another. You'll get used to it." He raises an eyebrow. "Especially after spending so much time together."

Poe grins, enjoying the disgruntled look on Finn's face, even if it is for the wrong reasons. "Yeah, I'm sorry you didn't get to go to the hell planet with the bad weather and dead Jedi and ugly monsters."

"Oh, that's not what I mean," Finn says, literally waving aside his comment. "I'm kind of surprised you didn't kill each other before the dogs tried."

"They weren't dogs," Poe said. "And we got along fine, Finn. Nothing to worry about."

Finn glances at the door, lowers his voice. "I think she was really worried about you, pal. Being out so long—you scared us both."

"I was worried about her," Poe admits. "She's one of the strongest people I know, and when she was lying there…all I could think about was losing her. Telling you I'd lost her."

Finn presses his lips together. "I'm glad _you're _okay," he says, and this time he leans closer. "You know that, right?"

Poe can see the honesty in Finn's eyes and swallows thickly. He remembers what he told Rey, when they were talking in the cave—about her relationship with Finn, his relationship with Finn. How it wasn't like _that_ for either of them, but that he'd thought about it. She'd asked him why he didn't say anything to Finn, do anything, and he'd told her he was focused on the war. On the Resistance. On making the galaxy a place where one day, he _could_ say something, do something.

Yet it is at times like this—those near-death experiences he seems to rack up almost weekly—that Poe wavers on his commitment. When he wants something more than just fighting and flying, because what if he doesn't make it back one day? What if Finn doesn't? Then he'll never have the chance to say anything, to do anything. To see what living could really be like, when war doesn't hang over them every day.

He suddenly realizes why Rey had brought up his parents. They'd been talking about Finn, and she'd asked about his parents fighting in the Rebellion. And he'd told her about them, never making the connection. His parents had fought together and found love in the midst of war. They had even lived their lives for a time together after. So it was certainly possible. Maybe Rey had been trying to point that out to him.

He isn't sure if it is enough, though. Poe may think about the future, sometimes in a ridiculously sentimental way that would surprise most people who knew him, but he has lived with the Resistance long enough to know that for now, he must live in the moment. Which means setting aside the things he may want in the future in order to make sure that future can happen. He's not going to pursue a relationship with anyone, let alone Finn, until the future is real and tangible, something he can look forward to, not fear.

Poe smiles at Finn, ignoring the unexpected feeling of loss in his chest as he sets aside the possibilities once more. "I know," he says. "And you know, I'm okay thanks to you."

"I only brought your ship back," Finn tells him. "You did all the hard work."

"As I often do," Poe teases. "But I couldn't finish half of what I do without you."

Finn narrows his eyes, opens his mouth, closes it, and seems to decide what to say. "Then it's a good thing you've got me," he says softly, and he once more lays his hand on Poe's.

Poe is unexpectedly moved and has to look away. When he glances back, he sees something in Finn's eyes that almost, _almost,_ makes him throw everything he'd said to Rey out the window, because maybe he's not the only one who's thought about it. About them. But Poe knows better. He may take the big risks in everything else he does, but this is not something to risk. This is Finn, this is their friendship, this is his own heart. He wants it, yes, but not now. Not yet. Not until they win.

"It's a _really _good thing I've got you," he murmurs back, and when his voice breaks, he clears his throat and hides it with a grin. "Though I'm sorry you're stuck with me. I tend to get into trouble a lot." Finn laughs and shakes his head. Poe squeezes his fingers to get his attention, turning serious once more. "I would do anything for you, you know that, right?"

"I know," says Finn. And there is that moment again, when Poe wavers, and he's so close to saying something, anything, but is saved by the frantic beeping of BB-8 rolling into the room and zooming back and forth before the bed. Finn grins and Poe laughs as he listens to the droid's questions, to how scared he was, what was Poe doing with a lightsaber, did he need any spare parts, and on and on.

Finn picks up the droid and deposits him on the bed, causing it to sink a little lower, which makes Poe laugh even harder as he rubs the top of BB-8's head and reassures him he's all right. Finn watches with what Poe imagines is a fond look. He hopes it is. He shares a smile with Finn, almost opens his mouth to say something again, but then Snap and Jess and C'ai tumble in, and Rey limping behind them, and then Dr. Kalonia, and even Leia, a rare smile on her face.

The moment is lost, but that's all right. Poe talks and laughs with his friends and vows that he will keep fighting until the end, until sitting in the medbay after another mission gone wrong is just a memory, and instead they can sit around and celebrate simply being together in peace, and not war. And Poe hopes more than anything that Finn will be there, still by his side.

* * *

Author's Note:

I didn't think there would be so much of Finn and Poe at the end, but Finn was upset, and Poe had some Deep Thoughts after everything he went through with Rey, so there it is. And now I feel better about moving it to the Poe/Finn tag! I hope you enjoyed this story. Let a girl know what you thought? Thank you for reading!


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